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It's easier just to pirate than keep up with all these streaming services. - You get the benefit of high quality (true 4k, not stream compressed "4k") and no b

It's easier just to pirate than keep up with all these streaming services. - You get the benefit of high quality (true 4k, not stream compressed "4k") and no buffering. - Plex, Radarr, Sonarr automatically downloads and categorizes your content for you, you can just sit back and enjoy your content. - Edit: Plex et al are not the *only* ways to download content, not sure why some replies are thinking so. I too can type in a show into a piracy site, click the magnet icon, and start immediately watching it. I personally don't even use Plex, Radarr or Sonarr myself, it was just a suggestion. In contrast, I can't just type any show into Netflix and watch it, since it might not even be on Netflix! Then I'd need to get on justwatch.com just to figure out which streaming service is playing the show. This is harder than piracy in my view. - You can use whatever media player you want without having to go through a browser and its DRM. I use mpv and filters like Anime4k to automatically upscale my content, something that I cannot do via a browser or otherwise without the physical file on my hard drive. - You're not geo-locked to content, just because you're not in the target country doesn't mean you wouldn't want to watch it. - Oh, and you can share with as many of your friends as you want without a restrictive password sharing penalty like Netflix seems to want to start enforcing. Now, what would be a good model to stop such piracy? Something like Steam or Spotify but for movies and shows: Perhaps a paid Plex server where I get all content from every distributor for a flat fee, and the service provider can then pay out to each distributor their portion of my subscription based on number of views. I retain access to the physical files without DRM so that I can do with them what I want, such as applying mpv filters. Hell, it's probably in the best interest of all distributors to band together because clearly everyone having their own subscription service is a race to the bottom. See Netflix here struggling to make original content because major distributors like Disney and Paramount have already left. See CNN+ that shut down one month after starting. Due to the tragedy of the commons, where each distributor thinks they can make more money via starting their own service, this hypothetical new service would have to be some sort of joint venture between them all so that no one is incentivized to start their own.

bradly 5y ago
Not being able to set or see an actual resolution when using Netflix on my TV is so frustrating.
- DoingIsLearning 5y ago
  Even without a widget I can definitely see that with Netflix I am getting 720p on a 4k TV, even more frequently when watching childrens shows. I have a 200Mbps internet link, Disney+ plays 4k just fine.
- FpUser 5y ago
  Resolution on its own does not mean much. To me all that matters if it is visually ok.
  - bradly 5y ago
    It is not. It's very clearly not HD and we gigabit internet. Other services do fine. Especially rented HD movies that are streamed. So instead of using my TV for Netflix, I watch on my laptop with a browser plugin to set a proper resolution.
    - nradov 5y ago
      Right but the visual quality depends more on the actual bit rate than on the nominal resolution.
      - colechristensen 5y ago
        But bitrate doesn't matter if they've selected 720p for you.
        lostlogin 5y ago
        I think I’m missing your point. What I’ve noticed: a Netflix 1080p is very much worse looking than the 1080p I get off Plex.
        colechristensen 5y ago
        Unbounded bitrate on 720p video will always look rather degraded on a 4k screen.
unboxingelf 5y ago
Having not touched this since early days of TPB, is there a decent overview to approaches in 2022 you could point me to? E.g. has torrenting moved to the cloud or are most running vpns? Asking for a friend.
- malermeister 5y ago
  A friend can recommend bytesized hosting if you want minimal hassle. They have installer scripts for all the most popular tools (like the ones in parent) and it's really easy to set up your own netflix-like experience, with Plex as the streaming UI, deluge as the torrent client and Sonarr and Radarr as automated torrent downloaders.
- sergiotapia 5y ago
  Latest and greatest is "plexshares" just google that. I've been sailing the high seas since 2002 and this is my last stop. No fuss, no worrying about anything. Wife and kids are very happy.
  - john_minsk 5y ago
    Wow. Thank you very much. Any advise for noobs?
    - sergiotapia 5y ago
      Find one in there that you like in your price range. I pay $20 and have 1080p/4k remuxes. I used to spend at least 10 hours a month managing my own Plex/Emby, the money is well spent to me. Also, buy an nvidia shield tv pro. It plays everything directly with no transcode, and handles all subtitles effortlessly without triggering a transcode. I tried roku, amazon cube, apple tv, everything - the shield is the best still despite it's age. It's flawless.
- Supermancho 5y ago
  rarbg.to is the popular index site. Bittorrent, the purple client. My smart TVs can access my PC's dedicated media directory - which took a bit of fiddling to get right. The big drawback is a lack of subtitles, unless they are baked in to the rip. I still have Netflix and Prime Video (because of AMZ Prime). I have thought about dropping Netflix more than a few times after the price hike.
sylware 5y ago
... and you are not forced to use those grotesquely and absurdely massive and complex google(blink/geeko) or apple(webkit) based browsers (and their SDKs), in other words, open source drm software which is "obfuscated" via complexity and size: you can use the media player you like, and in my case my shmol media player I wrote (using ffmpeg). This issue is actually critical as it is not really piracy as it narrows down to the right to have interoperabitily with technically reasonable and sensible software.
- bageljr 5y ago
  Gecko isn't google its Mozilla, all you have to do is change the search engine. But the rest is all correct
- ehsankia 5y ago
  Hell, even those browsers only get 720p...
simongr3dal 5y ago
I don't really get why Netflix is so sour about password sharing, it's literally part of the subscription pricing, they tell you how many concurrent streams you're allowed to have.
- malermeister 5y ago
  Obviously that's just for one person watching different things on their TV, computer and phone simultaneously. /s
- colechristensen 5y ago
  At this point 80% of the reason I still have a Netflix subscription is to share my password with my parents.
  - colinmhayes 5y ago
    Same, rarely watch myself, but they got pissed when I cancelled it.
- michaelt 5y ago
  In the 1990s some homes would have several screens of cable TV, so several people in the same home could watch different things at the same time. Parents with teenage children, for example. Because of the physical cables it only worked in one home - when the kids moved out, they had to pay for their own cable or go without. Netflix presumably hopes to achieve the same thing: Letting kids share their parents' accounts before they leave home, but not after.
- abnry 5y ago
  Yes, this very much bothers me. You pay for streaming. How many streams do you want? Well, pay Netflix for that number. However you like to use those streams is up to you.
- postalrat 5y ago
  Kinda crazy that using the number of streams you are paying for is now considered getting netflix for free.
CabSauce 5y ago
Sure. It's also stealing. And doesn't provide any money for future shows that you might enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I've done it for some things that I wanted to watch, but wasn't willing to pay for. But let's not pretend that everyone torrenting is a reasonable solution.
- dml2135 5y ago
  There are many lifetimes of content out there already. What if I'm fine with there being no money for future shows? I really fail to see how a world without high-budget Marvel films will be so bad. I'd be fine watching old movies and art-house productions for the rest of my life.
- halfnormalform 5y ago
  - CabSauce 5y ago
    More like I snuck onto a ride without buying a ticket. Or snuck into a theater without buying a ticket. Wouldn't you call that stealing? Edit: Call it digital trespass then. I don't really care what you call it. There are obviously fixed costs to creating content. Just because there aren't incremental costs incurred from piracy, doesn't mean there isn't harm. Lost revenue is harm.
    - vincnetas 5y ago
      Yes, it's not stealing.
    - dj_mc_merlin 5y ago
      Legally that wouldn't be theft.
    - newman8r 5y ago
      In those cases, your mere presence costs the operator more (fuel cost/ wear and tear/limited number of seats) - so sure, those cases could be considered stealing, but I don't think they're in the same realm as downloading entertainment.
gruez 5y ago
>You get the benefit of high quality (true 4k, not stream compressed "4k") Where do you think pirates get their source content from? Sure if it's a movie with a blu-ray release there's a 4k high bitrate source, but if it's a netflix original the "stream compressed 4k" is the only version available.
- cercatrova 5y ago
  Yes but a physical file does not buffer once fully downloaded, and I can upscale via mpv filters or madVR if needed.
candlemas 5y ago
But technically that's stealing. I still feel a pang of guilt if I do it so I just use the free streaming services.
- gruez 5y ago
  technically it's "copyright infringement", not "stealing"
  - Stunting 5y ago
    it's very much stealing from the residual based income of the workforce required to make your entertainment.
    - andrew_ 5y ago
      As mention in a comment above, it is not the consumer's responsibility to provide income to employees of a company providing goods or services. Please stop with this fallacy.
      - Stunting 5y ago
        Company's providing goods and services in a capitalistic society are entirely dependent on consumers providing the income for their workforce. How else do you really think this whole thing works. You get to keep your money, but still get all the goods and services provided. That's just silly.
        andrew_ 5y ago
        You're conflating consumer responsibility with consumer spending. It's the company's job to provide wages - the company dictates and designs the means to acquire money to provide wages. If the company provides a widget that consumers don't want, is it the consumer's fault the company cannot pay the wages of the employees? That's just silly.
thematrixturtle 5y ago
All this. Plus, if you live in a country that's not the US, half the streaming services aren't available, and on the ones that are, half the content is missing because it's 2022 and geographic region licensing is still a thing.
jksmith 5y ago
Maybe, but I'd pay for better content and UX. Many movies above that royalty threshold just aren't available. Also Netflix must die because they canceled Cowboy Bebop. About time anyway. Always next version of the business they put out of business. That's the way it works, especially with the deflation threat of technology. If you're a tech business and you can't maintain a margin so you have to raise rates, then something is up, broke, stockholder greed, personal greed, etc.
mcot2 5y ago
Not really. Streaming services like NetFlix are much easier. With Apple TV there is a universial search between all of the various services. Running a large media server can actually be pretty costly on power bills these days.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  Running your Apple laptop is pretty costly? It's much less than streaming costs
- lostlogin 5y ago
  > Running a large media server can actually be pretty costly on power bills these days. Only if using server hardware, and that isn’t a good way to do it. A recent generation igpu and a low power computer is the way to go. You’ll get 10+ streams out an Intel Nuc, or similar sff pc. The expensive bit is the storage array.
bb123 5y ago
There are also tons of benefits to just walking out of the grocery store without paying. No queues, no small talk with the checkout person and you save cash too.
- woah 5y ago
  Piracy. It's a crime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU
  - wtetzner 5y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg
- ipaddr 5y ago
  A better way to look at it is if you went to the store and took pictures of the food and shared those pics with friends. You want me to buy the apple before taking a picture?
  - Stunting 5y ago
    A picture wouldn't feed anyone, so this example is heavily flawed.
  - lostlogin 5y ago
    The apples haven’t got any better lately, and they now have a DRM coating which prevents your photos working. The coating is a continual irritation to apple eaters. There is also a terms of service for apple eaters to sign.
  - bb123 5y ago
    False equivalence. 0 marginal cost of replication doesn’t mean that the item is valueless. The creators have a right to be paid for their work. Just as you’d be working your rights to charge people to look at your apple picture.
JanisErdmanis 5y ago
Since the rise of streaming services it have been surprisingly hard to get older and less popular content as less people are seeding. Also seems there are stringent laws present for content sharing than it was 10 years ago. I doubt that content piracy will come back in the way it was so that an ordinary citizen could say "It's easier just to pirate".
hardwaregeek 5y ago
I don't know how to phrase this nicely, but this is precisely the type of Hacker News nerd-blindness that I find amazing. It's "easier"? Is it? For young children who want to watch their kids shows and don't know what 4k means? For grandparents who want to see some k-dramas and have no clue about DRM or geo-locked? Sure, Netflix has issues and it's made some bad decisions, but let's not delude ourselves here. The group of people who are comfortable pirating media and find it "easier" than Netflix is at least an order of magnitude smaller than Netflix's user base. I'm sorry, I just find it really absurd when people claim something is easier when it's just not. Perhaps you find it to be a better trade off, but it is not easier.
- Xelbair 5y ago
  yes it is. I come from country where intellectual property was treated as a western joke. Children younger than 10 learned how to pirate - by themselves, without knowing even English. A lot of people still can do that, and it's quite easy to find out how.
- fortran77 5y ago
  Exactly. I’m a 59 year old man who knows how to pirate, but watches his content from streaming providers because it’s simpler and safer, and I don’t like to steal. I don’t think piracy is what’s killing them. It’s that there are too many streaming providers and people don’t hesitate to drop subscriptions. I tend to subscribe when there’s a deal, watch everything I want to see, then drop it and switch to another one for 6 months. And I’ll bet I’m not alone.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
    This. I'm a 60-year-old (Do I win a kewpie doll?), and have the tech chops to pirate, but I don't want to. It's important for me to live a life of Personal Integrity. That stance gets a lot of chuckles with this crowd, but it's of critical importance, in my life. I'm fortunate, in being able to afford streaming services, but find the profusion and variety to be a mess. I like AppleTV Channels, and the way that the AppleTV Watch Now app aggregates the apps. Amazon has something similar, that my wife uses. Unfortunately, it looks like these knuckleheads can't agree on common licensing models. I don't want the "You can have any color you want, as long as it's black." approach of cable bundlers, but I also don't like the myriad ways of subscribing, or, quite frankly, the ever-changing prices. They need to get their shit together.
Stunting 5y ago
You're stealing income, specifically from me and all of my coworkers. Perhaps you think that you're only stealing from Producers and A list actors, but there are entire departments that receive residuals on a production. - On screen performers, stunt performers like myself and actors who grind out a comfortable living. Those residuals also go to qualifying for health insurance through earnings. You are directly stealing from my ability to provide health insurance to my family. - Assistant Directors, who are saints dealing with every logistical problem imaginable. The best of them only work 1-2 movies a year because the workload causes severe burnout. - The Union themselves! The more money that flows through the union, the more powerful they are. The more safer movie sets become and the better life is provided for the workforce that makes your entertainment. - Yourself! You are reducing the value of producing quality TV and Movies by stealing them. Every time one a show is pirated, there is less incentive to spend more money on an entertainment spectacle. Go check out my imdb and see how many of my credits you've watched https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1968249/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1968249/ For every show imagine that it's a nickel you stole from my income. WOuldn't be surprised if you took a buck or two out of mine. Now multiply that by all the on screen performers and ADs and others I mentioned. Now multiply that all the people who steal like you. You're directly responsible for sucking the quality of life away from people who make your entertainment and reducing the desire to make things you enjoy. You're going to end up with shows that are AI generated CGI sponsored by Mt. Dew and Chevy trucks. Stop stealing our shit.
- rambambram 5y ago
  Impressive list of movies! And a very good point you make. NB: Your website loads pretty slow for me (I'm in Europe), and the video on the homepage is unavailable, it says.
  - Stunting 5y ago
    Thank you, It's long overdue to update. I appreciate the bump
    - mech422 5y ago
DontMindit 5y ago
Disney, Paramount, CNN would eventually be held hostage to their platform by a Spotify or Steam ... The Music business and artists have been destroyed by Spotify
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
mpalczewski 5y ago
> It's easier just to pirate than keep up with all these streaming services. It really isn't and it's only cheaper if you don't put much value on your time. Radarr and Sonarr don't do anything automatically. Setting them up takes more time than they are worth. I tried installing them. Most would describe me as technically savvy, but I just gave up. example issues. Here's the quick start guide. https://wiki.servarr.com/radarr/quick-start-guide https://wiki.servarr.com/radarr/quick-start-guide 1. Get stopped immediately at the indexer. No sane defaults there at all. No guidance either. Plex doesn't do 4k streaming to Apple TV, doesn't do 4k to chromecast. The movies you pirate frequently have technical problems, usually the sound is off. You are lucky to have subtitles that work(synced correctly).
- racl101 5y ago
  > It really isn't and it's only cheaper if you don't put much value on your time. Very true. In the hours it takes to download and curate these movies and shows I've made more than enough to cover a Netflix, Disney+, Prime and HBO subscriptions for that month or pay for a few VOD titles for that month. My time is way more fucking valuable than the time required to do this well. And if I do without content or entertainment even better. Not everything is worth watch every month.
- 0x500x79 5y ago
  I don't think I agree with this level of negativity around plex, radarr, and sonarr. Using a seedbox provider and all of these things are setup and don't need any additional tinkering. You are right that the indexer is probably the least friendly part, but set it up once and it keeps working for over 6 months at a time.
me551ah 5y ago
This is exactly what I use. Throw all this on a good quality seed box and you have your own machine on the cloud.
BonoboIO 5y ago
Plex is nice! I run a Server for Family and Friends, it works great, but I’m an IT GUY and it’s a Hobby. For the most people it’s too much struggle to run this, especially when plex has the default settings of „transcode everything to 2mbit if the server is not at home“. I have multiple subscriptions, but most players suck (I look at you Amazon Prime). Plex is a way better experience. Oh I use a Nvidia Shield as Client. It’s awesome!
racl101 5y ago
Maybe it's because I haven't done it in earnest since the days of Limewire but pirating sounds like such a fucking hassle these days. So I just don't do it not out of a strong sense of morality but because I'm lazy. I'd rather do without.

bradly 5y ago

Not being able to set or see an actual resolution when using Netflix on my TV is so frustrating.

DoingIsLearning 5y ago
Even without a widget I can definitely see that with Netflix I am getting 720p on a 4k TV, even more frequently when watching childrens shows. I have a 200Mbps internet link, Disney+ plays 4k just fine.
FpUser 5y ago
Resolution on its own does not mean much. To me all that matters if it is visually ok.
- bradly 5y ago
  It is not. It's very clearly not HD and we gigabit internet. Other services do fine. Especially rented HD movies that are streamed. So instead of using my TV for Netflix, I watch on my laptop with a browser plugin to set a proper resolution.
  - nradov 5y ago
    Right but the visual quality depends more on the actual bit rate than on the nominal resolution.
    - colechristensen 5y ago
      But bitrate doesn't matter if they've selected 720p for you.
      - lostlogin 5y ago
        I think I’m missing your point. What I’ve noticed: a Netflix 1080p is very much worse looking than the 1080p I get off Plex.
        colechristensen 5y ago
        Unbounded bitrate on 720p video will always look rather degraded on a 4k screen.

unboxingelf 5y ago

Having not touched this since early days of TPB, is there a decent overview to approaches in 2022 you could point me to? E.g. has torrenting moved to the cloud or are most running vpns? Asking for a friend.

malermeister 5y ago
A friend can recommend bytesized hosting if you want minimal hassle. They have installer scripts for all the most popular tools (like the ones in parent) and it's really easy to set up your own netflix-like experience, with Plex as the streaming UI, deluge as the torrent client and Sonarr and Radarr as automated torrent downloaders.
sergiotapia 5y ago
Latest and greatest is "plexshares" just google that. I've been sailing the high seas since 2002 and this is my last stop. No fuss, no worrying about anything. Wife and kids are very happy.
- john_minsk 5y ago
  Wow. Thank you very much. Any advise for noobs?
  - sergiotapia 5y ago
    Find one in there that you like in your price range. I pay $20 and have 1080p/4k remuxes. I used to spend at least 10 hours a month managing my own Plex/Emby, the money is well spent to me. Also, buy an nvidia shield tv pro. It plays everything directly with no transcode, and handles all subtitles effortlessly without triggering a transcode. I tried roku, amazon cube, apple tv, everything - the shield is the best still despite it's age. It's flawless.
Supermancho 5y ago
rarbg.to is the popular index site. Bittorrent, the purple client. My smart TVs can access my PC's dedicated media directory - which took a bit of fiddling to get right. The big drawback is a lack of subtitles, unless they are baked in to the rip. I still have Netflix and Prime Video (because of AMZ Prime). I have thought about dropping Netflix more than a few times after the price hike.

sylware 5y ago

... and you are not forced to use those grotesquely and absurdely massive and complex google(blink/geeko) or apple(webkit) based browsers (and their SDKs), in other words, open source drm software which is "obfuscated" via complexity and size: you can use the media player you like, and in my case my shmol media player I wrote (using ffmpeg). This issue is actually critical as it is not really piracy as it narrows down to the right to have interoperabitily with technically reasonable and sensible software.

bageljr 5y ago
Gecko isn't google its Mozilla, all you have to do is change the search engine. But the rest is all correct
ehsankia 5y ago
Hell, even those browsers only get 720p...

simongr3dal 5y ago

I don't really get why Netflix is so sour about password sharing, it's literally part of the subscription pricing, they tell you how many concurrent streams you're allowed to have.

malermeister 5y ago
Obviously that's just for one person watching different things on their TV, computer and phone simultaneously. /s
colechristensen 5y ago
At this point 80% of the reason I still have a Netflix subscription is to share my password with my parents.
- colinmhayes 5y ago
  Same, rarely watch myself, but they got pissed when I cancelled it.
michaelt 5y ago
In the 1990s some homes would have several screens of cable TV, so several people in the same home could watch different things at the same time. Parents with teenage children, for example. Because of the physical cables it only worked in one home - when the kids moved out, they had to pay for their own cable or go without. Netflix presumably hopes to achieve the same thing: Letting kids share their parents' accounts before they leave home, but not after.
abnry 5y ago
Yes, this very much bothers me. You pay for streaming. How many streams do you want? Well, pay Netflix for that number. However you like to use those streams is up to you.
postalrat 5y ago
Kinda crazy that using the number of streams you are paying for is now considered getting netflix for free.

CabSauce 5y ago

Sure. It's also stealing. And doesn't provide any money for future shows that you might enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I've done it for some things that I wanted to watch, but wasn't willing to pay for. But let's not pretend that everyone torrenting is a reasonable solution.

dml2135 5y ago
There are many lifetimes of content out there already. What if I'm fine with there being no money for future shows? I really fail to see how a world without high-budget Marvel films will be so bad. I'd be fine watching old movies and art-house productions for the rest of my life.
halfnormalform 5y ago
- CabSauce 5y ago
  More like I snuck onto a ride without buying a ticket. Or snuck into a theater without buying a ticket. Wouldn't you call that stealing? Edit: Call it digital trespass then. I don't really care what you call it. There are obviously fixed costs to creating content. Just because there aren't incremental costs incurred from piracy, doesn't mean there isn't harm. Lost revenue is harm.
  - vincnetas 5y ago
    Yes, it's not stealing.
  - dj_mc_merlin 5y ago
    Legally that wouldn't be theft.
  - newman8r 5y ago
    In those cases, your mere presence costs the operator more (fuel cost/ wear and tear/limited number of seats) - so sure, those cases could be considered stealing, but I don't think they're in the same realm as downloading entertainment.

gruez 5y ago

>You get the benefit of high quality (true 4k, not stream compressed "4k") Where do you think pirates get their source content from? Sure if it's a movie with a blu-ray release there's a 4k high bitrate source, but if it's a netflix original the "stream compressed 4k" is the only version available.

cercatrova 5y ago
Yes but a physical file does not buffer once fully downloaded, and I can upscale via mpv filters or madVR if needed.

candlemas 5y ago

But technically that's stealing. I still feel a pang of guilt if I do it so I just use the free streaming services.

gruez 5y ago
technically it's "copyright infringement", not "stealing"
- Stunting 5y ago
  it's very much stealing from the residual based income of the workforce required to make your entertainment.
  - andrew_ 5y ago
    As mention in a comment above, it is not the consumer's responsibility to provide income to employees of a company providing goods or services. Please stop with this fallacy.
    - Stunting 5y ago
      Company's providing goods and services in a capitalistic society are entirely dependent on consumers providing the income for their workforce. How else do you really think this whole thing works. You get to keep your money, but still get all the goods and services provided. That's just silly.
      - andrew_ 5y ago
        You're conflating consumer responsibility with consumer spending. It's the company's job to provide wages - the company dictates and designs the means to acquire money to provide wages. If the company provides a widget that consumers don't want, is it the consumer's fault the company cannot pay the wages of the employees? That's just silly.

thematrixturtle 5y ago

All this. Plus, if you live in a country that's not the US, half the streaming services aren't available, and on the ones that are, half the content is missing because it's 2022 and geographic region licensing is still a thing.

jksmith 5y ago

Maybe, but I'd pay for better content and UX. Many movies above that royalty threshold just aren't available. Also Netflix must die because they canceled Cowboy Bebop. About time anyway. Always next version of the business they put out of business. That's the way it works, especially with the deflation threat of technology. If you're a tech business and you can't maintain a margin so you have to raise rates, then something is up, broke, stockholder greed, personal greed, etc.

mcot2 5y ago

Not really. Streaming services like NetFlix are much easier. With Apple TV there is a universial search between all of the various services. Running a large media server can actually be pretty costly on power bills these days.

ipaddr 5y ago
Running your Apple laptop is pretty costly? It's much less than streaming costs
lostlogin 5y ago
> Running a large media server can actually be pretty costly on power bills these days. Only if using server hardware, and that isn’t a good way to do it. A recent generation igpu and a low power computer is the way to go. You’ll get 10+ streams out an Intel Nuc, or similar sff pc. The expensive bit is the storage array.

bb123 5y ago

There are also tons of benefits to just walking out of the grocery store without paying. No queues, no small talk with the checkout person and you save cash too.

woah 5y ago
Piracy. It's a crime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU
- wtetzner 5y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg
ipaddr 5y ago
A better way to look at it is if you went to the store and took pictures of the food and shared those pics with friends. You want me to buy the apple before taking a picture?
- Stunting 5y ago
  A picture wouldn't feed anyone, so this example is heavily flawed.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  The apples haven’t got any better lately, and they now have a DRM coating which prevents your photos working. The coating is a continual irritation to apple eaters. There is also a terms of service for apple eaters to sign.
- bb123 5y ago
  False equivalence. 0 marginal cost of replication doesn’t mean that the item is valueless. The creators have a right to be paid for their work. Just as you’d be working your rights to charge people to look at your apple picture.

JanisErdmanis 5y ago

Since the rise of streaming services it have been surprisingly hard to get older and less popular content as less people are seeding. Also seems there are stringent laws present for content sharing than it was 10 years ago. I doubt that content piracy will come back in the way it was so that an ordinary citizen could say "It's easier just to pirate".

hardwaregeek 5y ago

I don't know how to phrase this nicely, but this is precisely the type of Hacker News nerd-blindness that I find amazing. It's "easier"? Is it? For young children who want to watch their kids shows and don't know what 4k means? For grandparents who want to see some k-dramas and have no clue about DRM or geo-locked? Sure, Netflix has issues and it's made some bad decisions, but let's not delude ourselves here. The group of people who are comfortable pirating media and find it "easier" than Netflix is at least an order of magnitude smaller than Netflix's user base. I'm sorry, I just find it really absurd when people claim something is easier when it's just not. Perhaps you find it to be a better trade off, but it is not easier.

Xelbair 5y ago
yes it is. I come from country where intellectual property was treated as a western joke. Children younger than 10 learned how to pirate - by themselves, without knowing even English. A lot of people still can do that, and it's quite easy to find out how.
fortran77 5y ago
Exactly. I’m a 59 year old man who knows how to pirate, but watches his content from streaming providers because it’s simpler and safer, and I don’t like to steal. I don’t think piracy is what’s killing them. It’s that there are too many streaming providers and people don’t hesitate to drop subscriptions. I tend to subscribe when there’s a deal, watch everything I want to see, then drop it and switch to another one for 6 months. And I’ll bet I’m not alone.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
  This. I'm a 60-year-old (Do I win a kewpie doll?), and have the tech chops to pirate, but I don't want to. It's important for me to live a life of Personal Integrity. That stance gets a lot of chuckles with this crowd, but it's of critical importance, in my life. I'm fortunate, in being able to afford streaming services, but find the profusion and variety to be a mess. I like AppleTV Channels, and the way that the AppleTV Watch Now app aggregates the apps. Amazon has something similar, that my wife uses. Unfortunately, it looks like these knuckleheads can't agree on common licensing models. I don't want the "You can have any color you want, as long as it's black." approach of cable bundlers, but I also don't like the myriad ways of subscribing, or, quite frankly, the ever-changing prices. They need to get their shit together.

Stunting 5y ago

You're stealing income, specifically from me and all of my coworkers. Perhaps you think that you're only stealing from Producers and A list actors, but there are entire departments that receive residuals on a production. - On screen performers, stunt performers like myself and actors who grind out a comfortable living. Those residuals also go to qualifying for health insurance through earnings. You are directly stealing from my ability to provide health insurance to my family. - Assistant Directors, who are saints dealing with every logistical problem imaginable. The best of them only work 1-2 movies a year because the workload causes severe burnout. - The Union themselves! The more money that flows through the union, the more powerful they are. The more safer movie sets become and the better life is provided for the workforce that makes your entertainment. - Yourself! You are reducing the value of producing quality TV and Movies by stealing them. Every time one a show is pirated, there is less incentive to spend more money on an entertainment spectacle. Go check out my imdb and see how many of my credits you've watched https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1968249/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1968249/ For every show imagine that it's a nickel you stole from my income. WOuldn't be surprised if you took a buck or two out of mine. Now multiply that by all the on screen performers and ADs and others I mentioned. Now multiply that all the people who steal like you. You're directly responsible for sucking the quality of life away from people who make your entertainment and reducing the desire to make things you enjoy. You're going to end up with shows that are AI generated CGI sponsored by Mt. Dew and Chevy trucks. Stop stealing our shit.

rambambram 5y ago
Impressive list of movies! And a very good point you make. NB: Your website loads pretty slow for me (I'm in Europe), and the video on the homepage is unavailable, it says.
- Stunting 5y ago
  Thank you, It's long overdue to update. I appreciate the bump
  - mech422 5y ago

DontMindit 5y ago

Disney, Paramount, CNN would eventually be held hostage to their platform by a Spotify or Steam ... The Music business and artists have been destroyed by Spotify

deleted 5y ago

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mpalczewski 5y ago

> It's easier just to pirate than keep up with all these streaming services. It really isn't and it's only cheaper if you don't put much value on your time. Radarr and Sonarr don't do anything automatically. Setting them up takes more time than they are worth. I tried installing them. Most would describe me as technically savvy, but I just gave up. example issues. Here's the quick start guide. https://wiki.servarr.com/radarr/quick-start-guide https://wiki.servarr.com/radarr/quick-start-guide 1. Get stopped immediately at the indexer. No sane defaults there at all. No guidance either. Plex doesn't do 4k streaming to Apple TV, doesn't do 4k to chromecast. The movies you pirate frequently have technical problems, usually the sound is off. You are lucky to have subtitles that work(synced correctly).

racl101 5y ago
> It really isn't and it's only cheaper if you don't put much value on your time. Very true. In the hours it takes to download and curate these movies and shows I've made more than enough to cover a Netflix, Disney+, Prime and HBO subscriptions for that month or pay for a few VOD titles for that month. My time is way more fucking valuable than the time required to do this well. And if I do without content or entertainment even better. Not everything is worth watch every month.
0x500x79 5y ago
I don't think I agree with this level of negativity around plex, radarr, and sonarr. Using a seedbox provider and all of these things are setup and don't need any additional tinkering. You are right that the indexer is probably the least friendly part, but set it up once and it keeps working for over 6 months at a time.

me551ah 5y ago

This is exactly what I use. Throw all this on a good quality seed box and you have your own machine on the cloud.

BonoboIO 5y ago

Plex is nice! I run a Server for Family and Friends, it works great, but I’m an IT GUY and it’s a Hobby. For the most people it’s too much struggle to run this, especially when plex has the default settings of „transcode everything to 2mbit if the server is not at home“. I have multiple subscriptions, but most players suck (I look at you Amazon Prime). Plex is a way better experience. Oh I use a Nvidia Shield as Client. It’s awesome!

racl101 5y ago

Maybe it's because I haven't done it in earnest since the days of Limewire but pirating sounds like such a fucking hassle these days. So I just don't do it not out of a strong sense of morality but because I'm lazy. I'd rather do without.